Over the years there have been a number of rotary-type labeling and decorating machines designed to accommodate various tubular or cylindrical items such as bottles, cans, jars and the like on a continuous basis. In this regard, rotary-type application arrangements have been relatively widely known for continuous operations, wherein articles to be decorated are situated about the periphery of a rotating wheel and successfully moved past one or more label applicating or other decorating stations.
It has also been common to provide holders for individual bottles or the like adjacent the periphery of the rotating wheel, wherein each of the bottle holders is rotatably held adjacent that periphery. Each holder device is further non-rotatably connected to a pinion gear which is meshed with the periphery of a stationary gear, such that as the rotating wheel or table moves the individual bottle holder devices about its periphery, the pinion gears moving about the stationary gear cause planetary type rotation of the holder devices relative to the rotating table.
An example of a planetary type arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,806,197, which issued to A. Harvey. The Harvey continuous motion round bottle turret arrangement provides rotational energy via a shaft and drive sprocket, wherein the individual receptacle cups are turned by a preselected angle as a result of the planetary interaction of the gears 302 and 303. Harvey also contemplates bottle engaging cups having an internal plate which is raised up to accept a bottle from a conveyor belt as a result of its plate stem interacting with a CAM surface therebelow. Generally, however, planetary type arrangements of this type, and of the type commonly available in the industry, include the inherent physical connection between bottle supporting devices and the rotating table. In order to speed up the rotation of the individual bottles, it is necessary to speed up the entire continuous motion system, and the rotating table in particular. Moreover, to adapt the system to bottles having varying external diameters, shapes, sizes or decoration requirements, it is necessary to physically dismantle a substantial portion of the labeling machinery to substitute planetary gears and other parts of corresponding sizes, diameters, etc. These physical limitations can cause substantial down time for labeling machinery used for decoration of products of varying dimensions and designs, and made the notion of quickly interchangeable or universal labeling machines essentially unattainable heretofore.
Other examples of machinery and procedures previously available in the labeling and decorating industry, including U.S. Pats. 3,064,714 (which issued to C. Flood), 3,653,176 (which issued to L. Gess), 3,718,517 (which issued to T. Berg), and Canadian patent 667,473 (which also issued to C. Flood), have many of these same limitations, and generally require substantial part interchange or other physical modification to adapt such machinery to differing label applications or decorating requirements. Consequently, heretofore there has not been available a continuous labeling machine and process which would enable convenient and relatively automatic transition among a variety of label applicating and/or decorating schemes without unwieldy, costly, and/or inconvenient part change requirements. Due to these technological and practical limitations, most continuous bottle labeling/decorating machines were necessarily provided in a dedicated or semi-dedicated environment, where transitions between product designs and labeling requirements were necessarily maintained as rare occurrences due to the costs, time, and skilled labor requirements.